Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

204 W. J. M. Mackenzie
Marion Levy) it seems more at home in variate language than in any sort of
general theory. But it wil be obvious that these two themes - the relations of
political variables to economic and social variables, and the improvement (or
‘modernization’) of political institutions so as to serve economic development -
have been very prominent in recent American research.
These themes are in various different forms prominent elsewhere. In England,
such analysis has been stronger hitherto among historians than among political
scientists, and Marxist and other concepts have been systematically explored
and debated in relation to the constitutional struggle in the seventeenth century
(Toynbee, Christopher Hill, Trevor-Roper). In Canada C. B. Macpherson has
studied both the social and economic base of prairie radicalism in the twen-
tieth century and the structure of ideological argument in the seventeenth cen-
tury. In Poland much has been done to explore changing patterns of political,
economic and social life (Ehrlich, Wiatr) and Stein Rokkan in Norway has
been a leader in a form of research now widespread which relates changes in
in voting behaviour and party structure to economic and social variables over
long periods.
Not all these scholars would accept the view that the ‘best’ form of govern-
ment is that best adapted to the productive process : but all are concerned with
the relation between these two factors.
Reference was made under the heading Public Administration (p. 197) to
the recent interest in administration for economic development. There has of
course been equal interest in the theme of ‘political development’, and it has
become obvious that in this field not much can be done by studying public
administration apart from its political, social and economic context. Here at
least, the concept of ‘administrative science’ as a separate discipline has suffered
a setback.
The work on political development has in volume greatly exceeded even that
concerned with development administration, and one views the results with
mixed feelings. The work done has been primarily American and English, with
some valuable French and Israeli contributions; but there has been an impor-
tant debate over neo-Marxism and neo-colonialism, some of it at a serious
academic level, and academic contributions are beginning to come increasingly
from scholars in the developing countries. Experience of the past phase, of
fifteen years or so, suggests that work in this field wil not go well till it is con-
ceived and sponsored primarily within the Third World itself. There have in
fact been great gains in knowledge in this period, and the whole subject has been
transformed: but it is a conspicuous weakness that so much of the work has been
inspired from outside the countries concerned. Perhaps objectivity is in some
sense easier where there is not continuous personal involvement: but a mixed
bag of motives may take its place. The Cold War aspect of the matter is not
perhaps as serious as is sometimes thought. In spite of the turmoil over Opera-
tion Camelot52 direct American military spending in this field was not (by
American standards) very large; indeed, it might have been better for all of us
if the American military had been better taught, on the basis of better research.
One could complain more justly that the choice of topics owed more to fashion